


The Body Flop

by Forget_About_Me



Series: Omovember 2020 [2]
Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Alien Biology, Alien Technology, Awesome Martha Jones, BAMF Martha, Doctor/Patient, Friendship, Gen, Illnesses, Injury, Martha Jones Is a Star, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Omorashi, Omovember, Omovember 2020, Omovember Day 2, Post-Episode: s03e07 42, Sentient TARDIS, Sick Character, Sickfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-02
Updated: 2020-11-02
Packaged: 2021-03-08 18:28:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,469
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27351229
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Forget_About_Me/pseuds/Forget_About_Me
Summary: Having superior biolgy is nice and all. But that doesn't change the fact that every body has its limits. And said limit will be hit eventually.
Relationships: Tenth Doctor & Martha Jones
Series: Omovember 2020 [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1994284
Comments: 10
Kudos: 37





	The Body Flop

**Author's Note:**

> I've been wanting to write a 42 sickfic for a while now. And this prompt was an excuse to finally do it. As I was thinking on just how sick he was going to be I remembered just how much shit had been thrown his way and the fact that like the first half of season 3 takes place in less than a week.  
> So yeah this is what you get from that.
> 
> **prompt: Sick/exhausted omo**

As Martha was talking with her mother on the phone. The Doctor tried his best to fight his body, he struggled to stay upright. 

That sun had affected him a lot more than he was letting on.

It wasn't just that though, he hadn't been feeling very well coming into it either. The last couple of days had been... painful.

He was aching all over, the past week had been hell. It had only been five days since his blood had been sucked by a Plasmavore, nearly killing him.

He had still been recovering from the blood loss of that when the next day that Carrionite had caused his heart to stop, which hadn't helped his recovery process at all.

Then he had nearly poisoned himself with all the fumes he had inhaled in his attempt to save Martha, it still kinda hurt to breathe. Then on top of that, he had been electrocuted on top of the Empire State Building.

And now right after the sun possession, he was having a hard time to act as if his body wasn't on fire. Even his amazing biology had its limits. 

He closed his eyes, taking a breath, hoping to shake off the overwhelming exhaustion he was feeling, barely aware of Martha saying goodbye to her mum and hanging up the phone.

Martha’s hand on his arm startled him, causing him to jump up. Nearly falling over before quickly catching himself on the console again. 

"You okay?" She looked at him, concerned. 

He took a deep breath trying to collect himself, trying to force himself to act like everything was fine. But then just shook his head slightly.

He couldn't do this any more, even with the support of the console his legs were shaking and his vision was swimming. 

He slumped forward over the console, fully giving up the pretence that he was okay.

Martha rubbed his back, comforting him. "What do you need?" 

He shook his head in despair. "I’m so tired." His breathing had sped up, struggling to get enough air. 

"Maybe we should look you over in the infirmary. We should check whether you got any damage from that sun." Martha suggested.

Which was a reasonable suggestion. 

But before he could agree everything went black.

* * *

The first thing he became aware of as he came to, was the exhaustion lingering in his bones. There was some rustling on his right. Slowly he managed to force his heavy eyelids open. Immediately closing them again, wincing at the light which offended his retinas. 

After blinking a few times he managed to open his eyes enough to look around.

He was in the infirmary, though he wasn't entirely sure how he got there.

He slowly turned his head, seeing Martha working on one of the computers. Probably scanning him, which considering how he felt and the fact that he probably collapsed, was reasonable.

He swallowed through his dry throat before croakily calling out for her. 

"Hey, how you're feeling.?" She asked him softly.

"What happened?" He asked instead of answering her.

"You collapsed in the console room." She told him. "I don't know enough about your biology to say much, but I definitely don't like the sound of your breathing."

He nodded, that made sense, his breathing had been shaky for days after all. "Water?"

"Of course, hang on a tick." She walked away from the bed, he couldn't find the energy to see where he went. As he waited for her to come back he closed his eyes again, trying to focus on his breaths, His lungs had been bad before but now he actually struggled to get enough oxygen

He struggled to get enough oxygen, it had been bad before but now it was even worse. 

It was as if that suns had attacked the parts of his body that were already weak. He had been pushing the pain to the back of his mind before when he had been talking to the crew and Martha earlier.

But apparently, it had caught up with him. Maybe he should've properly allowed his body to properly heal from the previous injuries.

_Oh well, no use crying over spilt milk._

Although it was a bit hard to shrug at that since his body was in absolute agony.

He jumped up slightly as he felt a hand run through his hair, cool hand.

Pushing his tired eyes open again he looked at Martha through heavy eyelids.

"Here.” She lifted the glass towards him, putting the straw at his lips, allowing him to take some sips.

Not that it helped much.

"Do you have any idea what caused this?" Martha asked gently.

Well, yes he had. But he didn't have the energy to explain what had happened.

"Scan, TARDIS." He mumbled to force out. "She'll-" He just gave up on speaking, it costing too much energy.

"The TARDIS will help me with the scans?" She guessed, seeing that he was struggling to get a sentence out.

He nodded slightly. As he slowly got pulled back into blackness.

* * *

The Doctor let out a groan as he shifted on the bed. His head was throbbing intensely and the simple act of breathing was torture. There wasn't a nerve in his body that wasn't flaring up in pain. His whole body was a mixture of shooting pain along with a lingering ache everywhere.

He was too disorientated to be able to tell how long he had been out. Something he normally knew to the second.

Through the overwhelming pain, he was slowly becoming aware of the urgent pressure in his bladder. He curled into himself with a whimper. Trying to find a position which was somewhat comfortable.

 _But he quickly gave up_. 

He opened his eyes slightly, the TARDIS had lowered the lights off the medbay, allowing him to see through his blinding headache.

In his current state, he was barely aware of his surrounding, Though he did register that he was in the room alone. 

He let out a groan of pain, as he slowly tried to push himself up, but he wasn't having much success.

The loo was only three beds down, he could make that. Never mind the fact that he couldn't even sit up.

_He had to pee!_

He took a couple deep and painful breaths collecting his strength before pushing himself off the bed.

And then proceeded to crash hard into the ground next to it. 

He gasped in pain as the little air he had in his lung got knocked out of them.

He couldn't bite back a whimper, he scratched helplessly at the floor, as he tried to gain the strength to pull himself forward towards the loo. Not that he had any chance of success.

_Honestly, he had no idea how to he was going to do it._

* * *

Martha got woken up by the TARDIS urgently buzzing in her mind. Obviously trying to get her attention. 

As soon as she was awake enough she shot up in realization. There was only one reason the TARDIS could be trying to get her attention. And that was if something was going on with the Doctor. 

Who, she knew, was terribly sick.

The medical student quickly shot out of bed, not bothering with a robe or anything, and quickly made her way toward the medbay. 

As soon as she entered she noticed his bed empty. Which considering that he had been in no state to move when he left her was very concerning.

Just as she was trying to figure out where to report a kidnapped Time Lord to, she heard a very familiar whimper coming from behind the bed.

"Doctor?!" She quickly made her away towards the Time Lord's bed, spotting him withering around on the floor. 

Martha quickly crouched next to him, feeling concerned.

"Doctor?." 

He looked up slightly, a wild look in his eyes. The pain plain in his expression. "Martha?" His voice was rough.

"Hey." She talked slowly, mindful to keep her voice down for his migraine. “You fell out of bed. Let's get you back on it, okay?"

He let out a small noise of protest.

"What is it?" She asked, running a gentle hand through his hair. 

"Toilet." He breathed out just loud enough for her to hear it.

_Now that made sense._

"Right." She nodded. "Let’s get you in bed first, then we'll deal with it. " 

He let out another noise of complaint. 

"I know, I know." She soothed him. "You have to go. But I'm not going to drag you all the way to the loo. You're simply not strong enough for that."

It took a bit of effort to get the Time Lord back into bed. All the while he kept complaining about the fullness of his bladder, despite her already assuring him that they would take care of it. 

She couldn’t really blame him for complaining. He was obviously struggling with the idea of not being strong enough to get to the loo.

Beyond that, he was obviously rather desperate to relieve his bladder. 

With him as injured and out of it as he was he couldn't quite get why he couldn’t just go to the loo.

After lying him back on the bed she quickly went over to the supply closet, to find him something to help with his need. 

Despite really wanting to check him over for new injuries after falling out of bed. But she recognized that his bladder had precedence at that moment. 

She would just have to check him over after that.

Martha found a urine bottle in one of the cabinets before heading back towards him.

"Here, I got you a bottle you can use." She carefully handed him the bottle, but he barely seemed aware of it.

The Time Lord moaned, as his hand closed around the bottle.

"Martha." He mumbled in complained. “I don't wanna..." 

"I can't take you to the loo, this is all I can offer to you." She told him.

He sighed before nodding.

She turned away, to give him some privacy.

* * *

Despite not liking the idea of peeing in a bottle, The Doctor was just aware enough to know there was no way he could use a toilet in his current state. Even with Martha's help.

He let his hand creep slowly towards the seam of his trousers. Which in itself took already way too much energy.

It took him way longer than it should’ve done to realize that what his hand met was the elastic of his pyjama trousers instead of the buttons of his suit trousers. 

When he finally remembered that he could just push the trousers down he found that he didn’t have enough energy to actually do so.

He let out a whimper as the fabric was unmoving, keep himself trapped in his pants. 

There was no way he could do this. 

"Martha?" He let out in a defeated whisper.

_He needed help._

The warm hand closing around him, startled him a bit, not expecting it., 

His tired mind was barely able to supply him with the realization that it must be Martha who was taking the bottle back from him. The only other person on the TARDIS that moment.

His pyjama pants were being pushed down, something he had been incapable of himself. He was barely aware of being manoeuvred into what was probably the bottle. When Martha told him to let go, he did, relaxing his filled bladder. 

The thought that it might not be the right moment to let go crossed The Time Lord mind, briefly filling him with a fear of making a mess. But he was barely aware of his surroundings and his bladder was bursting.

Besides, there was no way he could hold it.

Honestly, he was feeling too weak to care about any consequences, the bliss of letting his bladder go temporary drowned out the overwhelming pain.

He was aware of nothing that was going on outside his body, his mind slowly drawing him back into the land of unconsciousness.

* * *

Over the next couple of days, he faded in and out of consciousness. Most of the time he didn't register much of what was going on in his surrounding. Martha seemed to be a constant at his bedside, something he appreciated more than he should. 

He was in absolute agony, the few moments in he was awake he couldn't focus on anything but the overwhelming pain running through his veins. 

There wasn’t much do more than curling in on himself, while shivering from his fever, wishing for it to pass.

The Doctor couldn't remember the last time he had felt this bad.

_He just wanted it to be over._

* * *

The first thing he became aware off upon waking was the absence of pain.

Yes, his body still ached all over, but the burning pain that had been plaguing him had gone. For the first time in a long time, he felt somewhat coherent.

He slowly opened his eyes, carefully looking around the medbay.

His eyes settled on Martha, who was sitting on a chair next to his bed, reading a book on Gallifreyan biology.

This surprised him slightly, none Gallifreyans generally weren’t allowed to know details about the biology. God, the Daleks would have a field day if they learned about some of their biology quirks. Apparently, the TARDIS decided Martha was trustworthy, while he had been asleep.

Sure, he had already concluded himself she was trustworthy. But he hadn't even considered giving her access to a book like that just yet.

Apparently, the TARDIS had taken that decision into her own hands. Not that it was the first time that happened.

He wasn't about to dispute his ship’s decision, not that he could anyway. It was useful to have someone around with that type of knowledge around him, someone capable.

Martha looked up from her book as he carefully pushed himself in a sitting position.

“Hey, how are you feeling?" She asked carefully setting her book aside. 

"Like I got hit by a freight train going at full speed." He told her honestly, having realized that it would be useless to lie after completely dropping on her like he had earlier. "Feeling better than before though." 

She smiled slightly. "That one's obvious." 

He nodded once, not looking at her, feeling slightly embarrassed about showing weakness like this.

"I'm glad you’re feeling better." She smiled slightly. "Though you’re not completely out of the woods yet. You should take it easy." 

He nodded agreement. He didn't even want to think about getting out of bed yet. The thought itself already exhausted him

However, that did bring up an issue.

"I need to pee." A lot more blunt about it than he normally was. But he was tired and aching, he just wanted his needs cared for, make himself as comfortable as possible. Besides, he vaguely remembered Martha helping him with it earlier, when he had been unable to do it himself.

_I couldn't get worse than that._

Though he was definitely wishing that he was misremembering that. Hoping it was just a feverish imagination.

He didn't have much hope for that being the case though.

But he was feeling too weak to worry about his loss of dignity right that moment. 

"You feeling strong enough to try a trip to the loo?" She asked gently, prompting him to shake his head in response.

"Alright, I'll go grab the bottle then." She said standing up. "I'll be right back."

"Thanks." He nodded, feeling embarrassed. 

As he waited for Martha to come back, he categorized the machines he had been hooked onto.

Most of them were just the standard, more advanced versions of what you would find in the 21st century, machines to monitor his vitals.

At a glance, he could see that his vitals weren't quite what they would want them to be.

The Time Lord sighed slightly, he was going to be recovering from this for quite a while yet.

He really shouldn't have let it get as far as he did, he was under no illusions that Martha was going to go easy on him. 

He absent-mindedly rubbed at an itch on his chest, as it itched. Frowning slightly as his hand met a bit of a bump there.

It took him a few seconds to realize what it was.

"Did you give me an Oxygen Injector?" He asked as soon as Martha came back with the promised bottle.

"You should've heard your breathing a few days back." She commented. "It's an interesting device. The TARDIS gave it to me with instructions and I read up on it after that."

He nodded in agreement, an oxygen injector was connected directly to the bloodstream that came out of the lungs, it worked by supplementing the blood with oxygen the lungs couldn't.

When you were hooked up to one of those devices you could actually go without breathing, the injector would just take over.

Not that it was it’s intended use.

"How long have I been out?" He wondered as he accepted the bottle, fiddling with it a bit, embarrassed. Not entirely sure how to go about using it. Especially while she was there.

"About a week. "

The Time Lord winced at that. "I'm sorry." He shifted slightly, playing with a loose thread on the blanket. "I promised you alien planets and adventure. I haven't delivered."

"It's fine. You’re not exactly in a state where you can do that. We got all the time in the world to do that once you're better." She assured him. "I'm going to the kitchen to make something for myself, you want me to get you something to eat as well."

"That'd be nice." He nodded, glancing down at the bottle he was still holding, recognizing that this was her offering the chance to use it.at the bottle uncomfortably. "I'd like something light if that's possible."

"Of course. I'll be back in a few minutes, give you a bit of privacy." The Doctor gave her a grateful smile before she turned and left him alone in the medbay.

Letting out a deep breath he gently pushed the blanket that was covering his legs away. 

Before pushing down his pyjama trousers he glanced once more at the door to the medbay, getting confirmation from the TARDIS that Martha wouldn't unexpectedly walk back in despite her promise.

Not that it would really matter if she did, she undoubtedly had seen him in all his glory at some point during the past week.

Still, privacy was important. Having confirmed that it was safe he grasped his pants and pyjama trousers at the same time, pulling them both down at the same time, freeing himself. 

He positioned the bottle, so he could relieve his bladder safely. Letting out a small sigh of relief he slowly relaxed his muscles.

While his bladder hadn't been full to the brim it had definitely felt heavy in his lower abdomen. It was nice to be rid of that. 

When his bladder was empty he carefully put the bottle on the bedside table. Feeling a bit better, despite the lingering ache that was still clinging to his bones and would probably stay there for a while. 

When Martha came back with a tray containing food for both of them, she quickly took care of the bottle before joining at his bedside, eating together. Something he was grateful for.

He struggled with getting away more than a couple of crackers, his body wasn’t quite rejecting the food, but it wasn’t welcoming it either.

"I'm still surprised that that sun could knock you so much of your rockers." She shared. “Then again it was really terrifying.”

He nodded feeling awkward. “Yeah.”

"Well,” He started awkwardly after a bit of silence. Realizing he should tell her the truth about what happened. “The sun basically amplified what was already there." He shifted uncomfortably, not meeting her eyes.

"Hold on mister." He could hear narrowing her eyes at him. "Just how much of that was the sun."

He shrugged, before admitting." "It probably was just the final push."

"Right. So, that thunder shock did more to you than you let on." She concluded.

He nodded. "Yeah, but it was more than that.”

She stared at him for a bit, contemplating it for a bit. “That plasmavore got you pretty bad”

He nodded in confirmation.

“Then you also had that heart thing with Shakespeare.”

“Yeah, that as well.”

“What happened to your lungs though?” She frowned. “They seemed to be off the worst.”

“New Earth.” He mumbled.

“You breathed that in!” She exclaimed.

“I was trying to get to you!” The Doctor defended himself.

Martha sighed. “Oh Doctor, you need to look after yourself better.”

"I know."


End file.
